Photos: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – Scoring three times in the game’s first 13 and a half minutes was enough to send the Greater Sudbury Cubs on their way to a 6-1 victory over the Blind River Beavers in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Thursday night at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Wasting little time, Greater Sudbury scored on the first shift and initial shot of the evening when Alex Valade lifted an attempt from the left point that sailed through traffic and flew past Blind River netminder Mason Janicki.
Adding another at 6:23 of the first period, the Cubs’ Eidan Macartney swiped the puck away at the Beavers’ blueline, then moved over to his left and ripped a shot over the glove of Janicki for his seventh tally of the season.
Continuing to impress since returning to the Greater Sudbury lineup last week, Mason Walker buried his fifth goal, in his fourth game of the season, as he wheeled out from the side boards and darted into the slot where he proceeded to wire in a wrister high blocker side.
That saw the visitors make a goaltending change with Justin Sullivan entering in long relief.
Cutting into the deficit on an early power play in the second stanza, Blind River’s Jonah McIndoo hammered in a blast off a one-timer from the top of the right circle that soared by Cubs’ goalkeeper Matthew Vahramian, after being teed up by Mattis Lafond.
Up a skater themselves midway through the matchup, Walker notched another by banking one in off the pad of Sullivan while driving down the left wing.
Adding one more before the intermission, the home side struck shorthanded when a Macartney backhand sent Noah Kohan in alone on a breakaway that he fired in low five-hole to make it 5-1 after 40 minutes.
Wrapping it up in a spirited, penalty-filled final frame, the Cubs’ Spencer Horgan went coast-to-coast on a splendid individual rush in the late going that saw him skate around multiple Blind River players before pumping a shot into the right corner at 17:23, on a man advantage, to round out the scoring.
With the outcome, Greater Sudbury improves to 9-5-1-0 on the year and with the loss, Blind River dips to 4-8-0-2.
